EuTLAND. — History of the Pacific. 33 



absence of the pig on the neighbouring continent, it is more 

 than probable it was introduced by man. Of the various 

 domestic animals, the Polynesian fowls furnish the best 

 evidence of a former intercourse between the region and 

 the Malay Archipelago, for we must proceed eastward of 

 Celebes, or, perhaps, to the Peninsula of India, to discover 

 the original habitat of the species, or where it was domesti- 

 cated. The jungle-fowl being the only representative of the 

 Phasianidcs in Celebes,''' there can be little doubt that it is 

 also a feral species. 



As in the case of the cultivated plants, from the absence 

 as well as the presence of certain domestic animals in Poly- 

 nesia, important conclusions may be arrived at. In the pre- 

 ceding chapter we have seen that in the warm portions of the 

 earth there is reason to believe man passed directly from the 

 hunting or fishing to the agricultural stage, and in colder regions 

 from the hunting to the pastoral stage. In seeking the birthplace 

 of agriculture we must take into consideration both the Old 

 World and the New, but regarding the origin of the pastoral 

 industry only the former can furnish any evidence. Though 

 the American Continent possessed many ruminants that if 

 domesticated might have been of great service to man, only 

 three herbivorous quadrupeds were found in domestication by 

 the early European discoverers — the guinea-pig, alpaca, and the 

 llama. Though the two latter were kept by the Peruvians in 

 vast herds for the sake of their wool and fiesh, the llama being 

 also employed as a beast of burden, the use of milk, on which 

 the true nomadic herdsman is so largely dependent, seems to 

 have been entirely uukuowm to the aborigines of Peru. I 

 Throughout a greater portion of the Old World milk forms an 

 important item in the food of the inhabitants, certain rude 

 tribes, such as the Kirghiz and Calmuck of Central Asia, 

 and the Damara and Hottentot of Southern Africa, being almost 

 dependent on it. 



Like America, Africa possesses a number of indigenous 

 ruminants, yet all the domestic species found amongst its 

 inhabitants are foreign to the continent. It is impos- 

 sible to determine exactly where the various species of 

 domestic cattle, sheep, goats, reindeer, camels, and horses 

 now scattered amongst the various nations of the world were 

 first brought into subjection, but we can say with confidence 

 that the wild stocks from which all were derived belonged to 

 the Euro-Asiatic region. Here, then, the use of milk, and 

 its various preparations as food, first came into vogue. As 

 the milk and flesh of all the animals enumerated is or has 



* " The Malay Archipelago." A. R. Wallace, 

 t " Conquest of Peru." Prescott. 



